There’s something about a small town that calls to me every time I travel. Everything slows down, the details stand out, and the charm is hidden in plain sight—in a faded sign, a church steeple, or an old brick storefront.

Photographing small towns isn’t about grandeur; it’s about story.

Galena, IL

I’m drawn instead to weathered details… the old Coca-Cola mural on a brick wall, the squeak of a screen door, the kind of Main Street where people still wave to each other. Photographing small towns is my way of preserving what often gets overlooked: the history tucked into buildings, the community rhythms, the beauty of the ordinary.

This summer, when I flew into São Paulo… Brazil’s largest city… I felt swallowed up by its size. When the clouds moved away and I could see through my airplane’s window to the city below, it was packed tight with building after building… concrete for miles, high-rises stretching to the horizon, traffic that never stopped. From there, we drove an hour and a half to Sorocaba, where my daughter-in-law grew up. By Brazilian standards, it’s a smaller city. To me, it still felt enormous.

And all I could think was: where are the small towns? I ached to get out into the countryside, to see the quieter streets and hidden corners that tell the stories I love to photograph.

São Paulo, Brazil

The view from my airplane window — endless high-rises stretching to the horizon.

Planning a Road Trip

At dinner one evening, I started asking my new Brazilian friends if there was any place I could go to get a taste of the small town life near Sorocaba. After some discussion, it was decided: a day trip to the wine country of São Roque would be just what I was looking for… and it was! They kindly lined up a van and a driver for the next morning. The night before, I pulled out my notebook and started sketching an itinerary of what I wanted to see: a dam, a church, a winery, an old train station, and eventually the town of São Roque.

Our First Stop: Itupararanga Dam

The next morning, our first stop was the Itupararanga Dam. We never got out of the van, but had I done so, I may not have wanted to drive over it! It was a one-lane bridge, a little daunting. But I was too busy taking pictures to notice. I was struck by how it felt like the landscape had two completely different faces. On one side, the reservoir stretched wide and calm, the water rimmed by forested hills in the distance. It was quiet, expansive, and almost meditative.

But when I turned to my right and looked out from the other side, the mood completely changed. Below, the valley spilled out in a tangle of green, with winding streams and small pools catching the sunlight. It felt wild and alive, a complete contrast to the stillness of the reservoir.

It was a reminder that every place has layers… calm on one side, vibrant on the other… and sometimes you have to stop and look both ways to see the whole story.

The Countryside and Villages

As we continued our drive, the van bounced along winding roads through green hills and farmland. We passed homes scattered across the countryside and one smaller village called Ibiúna. I wish we had stopped… its colors are what stay with me now. I did manage to get some video of us driving through. If I’d known about it beforehand, I would have made it one of our stops. As it was, we had to keep moving to get to the other places on the list.

P.S. Brazil is the speed bump capital of the WORLD!

As we wound our way deeper into the countryside, one small whitewashed building caught my eye. At first I thought it might be an old schoolhouse, but the cross above the door told a different story. Later I tracked it down on the map and learned it was the Capela de São João Batista in Bairro Piratuba II, part of Piedade’s Rota das Capelas (Route of the Chapels). These tiny rural chapels dot the hillsides, each one a quiet landmark of community faith and tradition. I love stumbling upon places like this… humble, enduring, and woven right into the everyday landscape.

**Capela de São João Batista, Piratuba II — one of the countryside chapels along Piedade’s Rota das Capelas.**

The Little Moments Along the Way

Not everything went perfectly, but those moments are part of the story, too. At one point, we thought we had a flat tire and had to pull into a gas station. It turned out that the tire was just low on air, but there I was, snapping photos of the station, the signage, the everyday Brazilian life happening all around us. It’s those kinds of unscripted moments where I often find my favorite images.

📸 A pit stop with personality — Café do Gil, gas pumps, and everyday life all in one frame.

Finding What I Was Looking For

When we finally reached São Roque, I found exactly what I had been craving: the church, the train station, the winery, the kind of details that remind me why I do this in the first place. Even in a country so different from my own, I could feel the same heartbeat of small towns that I feel in Pennsylvania or Connecticut or Ohio (yes, I said Ohio! Another blog post, perhaps?).

📸 A taste of the region’s wine country in São Roque.

📸 The renovated train station in São Roque — history still standing tall.

Why It Matters

That road trip reminded me that my love for small towns isn’t tied to one place or even one country. Small towns are a way of seeing the world. They remind me to slow down, notice the details, and capture the quieter stories that cities often bury.

Whether it’s a hydrangea in front of a Main Street shop in New England or a weathered train station in Brazil, these places tell us who we are. And for me, the best way to honor them is to notice, to photograph, and to share their stories.

Because in the end, small towns remind me that beauty is never in the grand gesture… it’s in the story.

Why I Love Photographing Small Towns (Even in Brazil)